Critical City Upload

An urban transformation game

It was May of 2008 when we launched the first version of CriticalCity.
We had no clear ideas but we felt that we needed to actualize, as soon as possible, this beautiful idea that had been on our mind for a while–a game that could unite young people around the world in bottom-up creative change of our cities. It was 2008 and CriticalCity had to wait two more years before it could see the light, only in October of 2010 we managed to get the funds needed to start and develop the game to its final version.

CriticalCity Upload opened its doors on 10/10/10, after three months of intense design work, 3 international awards and, overall, more than two years of work.

The correct Upload definition is a pervasive task-based game, meaning a game you can play anytime, anywhere (because it relies on a website), with missions to be carried out that increase the player’s score, allowing him to rise in the global ranking.
The novelty was that – unlike in videogames – the missions required our players to turn off the computer and to go out and actually carry out the mission in their neighborhoods, in their own city.

In 4 years of play, over 20,000 missions were performed by a community of over 13,000 players in Italy as well as in the rest of the world.

And surpassing urban transformation, we realized Upload was more about human transformation as we met hundreds of players, several love stories started from it, and we saw amazing places thanks to epic experiences.
Each of us came out of this game as a different person: being aware that public spaces are ours, aware that other people are a richness, and aware that the change we want to see in the world starts with us.

Credits

CriticalCity Upload – the game that makes you do the things you’ve never done before.
From an idea of Augusto Pirovano and Matteo Battaglia.
A project by Focus – UGF.
With the support of Fondazione Cariplo (2010/2011).
With the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo, NordMilano Foundation, Foundation of Monza and Brianza (2011/2012).
With the support and love of CriticalCity players (2012/2013/2014/2015).